S2E7 – The City’s Best Detective [#131 Loss]
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Takemura Itsuki

DING DING. The bell on top of the door rang as the door opened. Yumiko, who was wiping the white shelf with a white cloth inside the dark room only lighted with a single lantern on top in the middle of the night, turned her head up at the front and looked at Kurayami in a black overcoat beneath his black pair of pants. “You’re late, sir. The restaurant is closed.”

Kurayami smiled as he turned back, pushed the door, closed it, and then turned to the front, opening down the buttons of the overcoat. “So sorry that I’m not here to eat, Yumiko. And stop with this joke every day. It’s not even funny now.” He had unbuttoned all the buttons and now moved the overcoat backward, moving it down.

Yumiko turned her head down again and started to wipe off the shelf. “You went away in the noon, and have come back late, just before the midnight. Where were you gone?”

Kurayami hung his overcoat on his right arm, turned his head up toward her, and asked, “Why you ask?

“Just wanted to know. Why do you need to hide it anyway?”

“Well,” Kurayami turned his head down, put his hands in his pockets, and then turned his head up toward her again, who was smiling a little in victory as she wiped the shelf. “I’m planning on a surprise if Takemura-kun makes it to the rankings.”

“Ah!” She said with her mouth open wide and nodded.

“So, I’ll be out like this for some days until the registration exam is done,” Kurayami said with a smile as he started to walk toward the door in the front at the left corner of the restaurant. TAP. TAP. TAP. TAP. TAP. CREEEEEK. The door opened.

“But make sure it’s a good one, right, Yamazaki-san?” Yumiko commented with a devilish smile as she continued to wipe the shelf.

“Yeah, sure,” Kurayami replied with a smile, walked away, and closed the door behind him.

As he went away, Yumiko turned her head to the right at the door. “It’s tough getting information outta him.”

“Only God knows what he’s up to this time.”

***

The lantern was burning brightly. It was hung in the middle of the wide room filled with swords, shields, dummies, and other training equipment scattered all around. Its flames irregularly changed shape and direction as it burned. On the right side of my right foot was a thin sword kept down on the wooden ground. I was wearing a black pair of pants and a white round-neck t-shirt. I swung the sword in front of me from right up to left down, and stepped front as I swung it from straight up from my head to down, and then moved the sword from between my legs up with its apex straight in the front. “Huff. Huff.” I panted with my open mouth as I had my eyes fixed at the front. My face was full of droplets of sweat, and my hair was wet. I moved my left leg to the front, standing with both my feet beside each other, moved my arms down, and threw the sword down on the ground. CRANK! It crackled a little as it hit the ground beside my right foot. My butts then fell on the ground too. My knees were raised up in front of me, my arms surrounding them. I had my serious gaze fixed at the front as I inhaled and exhaled with my open mouth. I turned to the right, looking at the brown leather bottle with a strap kept on the ground. I extended my right arm, but since it was a little far, I bent a little toward the ground to get a hold of it. I then straightened my back as I moved the bottle in front of my legs and opened its top. With the cap on my left hand, I moved the bottle up, moved my head up, and tilted the bottle. Water started to flow from the bottle to my open mouth. I then straightened the bottle and moved it to the front of my chest, started closing the cap with my left hand, and then wiped a little drop on my chin from my left hand. I turned my head to the left, looking at the closed door of the room. It suddenly started to open as the fire in the lantern suddenly extinguished.

BANP!

“ARRRRRGHHHHHHH!”

“STOP IT, KIDDO!”

The lantern was lighted again by my hands. I turned my head to the ground, where Kurayami was lying on the ground, with his back on the top. He turned his head up as he pushed the ground, moving his back up.

“Oh, so it was you who tripped, huh?”

“WHAT THE HELL, KID?! WHO SHOUTS LIKE THIS?!”

“I-I-I’m a little afraid of ghosts, so,” I tilted my head down a little shyly.

“Are you a kid or something?!” Kurayami smiled as he stood up in front of me. “I just came here to ask how the training is coming along, and—!”

“G-Good,” I turned my head to the front, looking into his eyes. “At least I don’t shit like I used to be.”

“You’ll only know that once you make it to the competition,” Kurayami said as he smiled. He then turned backward and started to walk away. As I looked at his back opening the door, he said “I want you to be number one, Takemura-kun!”

“Y-Yeah…”

He closed the door with a bang.

“I FUCKING KNEW IT!” I remembered me shouting on top of my lungs.

“HAHAHASHAAHAA!” The kids in front of me were innocently laughing as I shouted at them angrily. It was nighttime and we stood in front of a dark abandoned house, with the narrow street where we stood slanting, descending down on our right.

“I FUCKING KNEW THAT YOU WERE JUST TRYNA SCARE ME!”

Haruto, who was behind me, pushed me a step back by my collar and whispered, “Stop cussing in front of the kids.”

A small kid was laughing in front of me with his face covered with both his hands which made it look unrealistic and utterly childish. “Heheheh, so the brother was right!”

***

“Haruto…” I thought as I tilted my head down, standing alone in the middle of the practice room, with equipment lying all around me.

“Haruto, with you… I somewhere lost myself too.”

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